Development of an Experimental Dynamo: Self-Generating Magnetic Fields from a Liquid Metal

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9615789 Lathrop This grant provides $83,279 as partial support of the costs of developing an experimental dynamo via testing of a prototype apparatus which thermally forces convection of liquid Sodium in an annulus in an attempt to generate a magnetic field. In order to achieve large enough fluid velocities in this apparatus, the titanium rotor which has been designed to handle large stresses will need to be rotated at 25,000 rpm. Such high rotation rates are necessary to overcome the scaling problems of an experimental apparatus designed to model the Earth's geomagnetic field. The development of an experimental dynamo has been a fundamental unsolved problem in geophysics and an unfulfilled dream of international researchers for the last 40 years. The technical difficulties of creating a laboratory sized system capable of generating a large enough magnetic Reynolds number to simulate the Earth's geodynamo have been daunting. This instrument, which has already been built and used for preliminary tests will shed light on the physics of fluid dynamos and has the potential to produce a magnetic field for the first time in a laboratory experiment. ***